Page 35 of Thexan

“The condition had not progressed to that stage previously,” he said.

“Of course it hadn’t,” I murmured.

I let my gaze drop briefly, not to avoid looking at him, but because I needed a second to recalibrate my own thoughts. Everything felt different, not just physically, but in the way my awareness settled, the way my attention kept returning to him without effort, without the need to remind myself to focus.

Before, it had been noticeable.

Now, it was constant.

This wasn’t something I could step away from and reassess from a distance.

There was no distance anymore.

I let that settle, not pushing it away, not trying to define it too quickly.

Then I looked back at him.

“This wasn’t just about stabilizing you,” I said.

“No.”

“You said it completes the bond.”

“Yes.”

“And that means…”

I didn’t finish the sentence.

I didn’t need to.

“It is permanent,” he said.

The words didn’t hit me like a shock even though he had told me it would be.

They settled.

Like something I had already known, somewhere beneath everything else, just waiting for confirmation.

I nodded once.

“All right,” I said.

I expected that to feel heavier. It didn’t in the way I would have assumed.

There was weight to it, yes, but it wasn’t pressing down. It was anchoring, steadying, aligning in a way that felt less like something had been added and more like something had been set into place.

I became aware then of how close we still were, of the fact that the connection hadn’t released yet, that whatever phase of this process he had warned about was still active, holding us exactly where we were whether we intended it or not.

“How long?” I asked.

“Approximately one third of a standard cycle,” he said. “Your measurement would be between twenty and thirty minutes.”

“Of course it is,” I said quietly.

He studied me for a moment. “You are not distressed.”

I considered that.